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22 seafarers missing after dramatic shipwreck

A South Korean-owned dry bulk vessel with 24 crew members and 260,000 tons of iron ore on board has been shipwrecked en route from Brazil to China.

Photo: Fleet Monitor

This Monday, a rescue team is still searching for 22 crew members from the dry bulk vessel Stellar Daisy, which likely went down Friday in the southern Atlantic, around 2,300 nautical miles from Uruguay.

So far, just two crew members have been found alive after the vessel, a VLOC (Very Large Ore Carrier) carrying 260,000 tons of iron ore en route from Brazil to China, allegedly broke in half and sank according to several media reports.

Stellar Daisy was operated by the South Korean company Polaris Shipping and sailed under the Marshall Islands flag. Of the 24 crew members on board, eight are from South Korea and 16 from the Philippines. The two crew members so far found alive are Filipino.

"The more hours pass, the less the chances are of finding them," spokesman for the Uruguayan Navy Gaston Jaunsolo told Reuters Sunday evening.

The reason for the wreck remains unknown.

"It was not a complicated day for navigation," Jaunsolo told AFP, reports BBC.

The search for missing seafarers began Saturday. On Friday, one of the seafarers on board Stellar Daisy texted the South Korean carrier, according to several media, and wrote that the ship was taking on water and careening severely.

Stellar Daisy was 321 meters long with a width of 58 meters and departed from Brazil on March 26.

The vessel is from 1993.

International shipping has been hit by several tragic shipwrecks in recent years.

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